Client Portal in Zoho Books

Client portal lets your clients stay up to date on all the transactions that are happening between them and your business. You can skip the lengthy email threads and collaborate better with your clients using the portal. Learn how you can enable the portal for your account and how to give access to your clients.
Enabling Client Portal

Enabling Client Portal In Zoho Books

Click the gear icon on the top right corner and head to the ‘Organization Profile’ section.

In the organization profile page, click ‘Enable Client Portal’ available next to Portal URL.

In the pop-up that opens up, enter the Name of the portal.

You can enter a welcome message in the space provided for ‘Banner Message’. This message will be shown to your clients as they log in to the portal for the first time.

You can check the box against “Send me email notification for every portal activity” if you wish to receive email notifications for every activity that your client does in the portal.

You need to check the box against “Allow customers to forward documents from portal” if you want to let your clients forward documents. Please note, the people whom they forward the document to will be added as contact persons in the contact information for that client.

Once done, click on Save.

Edit Client Portal Settings

If at any point, you wish to edit the settings for your client portal, you can always do that by following the steps below:

Sign into your Zoho Books account.

Click the gear icon on the top right corner and head to the ‘Organization Profile’ section.

In the organization profile page, Click on ‘Change Portal Settings’ available next to Portal URL as shown in the image below.

Invite contacts to your portal

To give access to your clients, you need to individually enable the portal for each contact person associated to a contact. Once they log in to your portal they can view the estimates, invoices you have sent them, all on their own. You can collaborate and discuss with your clients on estimates and invoices. This will hasten the quotes approval process and payments.

Steps to enable the portal for your contact.

Sign into your Zoho Books account.

Click on Contacts and select the contact that you want to enable the client portal for.

In the contact detail page on the right hand side, click on the settings icon to view more actions. In the list, click on ‘Configure Client Portal’. Please note, client portal will be enabled only when you have added a contact person for the contact.

In the pop up, select the contact persons for whom you want to give the portal access.

Once you click on ‘Save’, Zoho Books will send an email to your clients inviting them to the portal.

On clicking the ‘Accept Invite’ link, Zoho Books will open up another page where your client’s can create a password to log into your portal.

Your clients will be able to log into your portal and view the invoices, estimates and also download customer statements

Working in the Client Portal

Your clients can login to the client portal using their email address and the password they created in the previous step.

Client portal’s home screen shows the client on the last invoices they had paid and their outstanding with the company.

Transactions

Your clients can view the status of all the invoices and estimates they have received.

Estimate

Once the estimate is sent to the client, they can take your business forward by clicking on the ‘Accept’ button and accepting your estimate.

Clients can also decline the estimate if they are looking for a much better quote by clicking on the ‘decline’ option provided inside the ‘More’ drop down.

P.S: You can always rework on the declined estimate by clicking on the ‘Edit’ option provided in your Zoho Books account to make your clients an offer they can’t reject and update them.

Invoice

Invoices which are sent by you to the clients are shown in the client portal, where they can view and make payments by clicking on the ‘Pay Now’ button.

Your clients can make payments by choosing from the payment modes provided in the pop-up.

P.S: Various payment gateway options is given by you to the client at the time of creating the invoice.

For making payments using Credit/Debit card, clients can enter their card number, CVV, expiry date, billing address and the country to make payment. They can also choose to save the credit card details for future payments as well.

Get Notified

The ‘Viewed’ Notification

Once your clients have viewed your estimate or invoice, you will be notified about it with a ‘​Viewed’ icon on the specific estimate or invoice on your Zoho Books account.

Comments

Your clients can comment in the client portal about the estimate or invoice they receive. This feature comes handy as the client can comment in the client portal for a better quote rather than declining the statement.

You can check the comments made by the client on the specific estimate or invoice from your Zoho Books account and reply for the comment. Check the ‘Display in customer self service portal’ box to make your reply visible in the client portal.

Your clients can view your reply in the client portal.

By Mail

A notification email will be triggered to your email account if your client

Accepts or Declines the estimate

Adds a comment on the estimate or invoice

Makes payment for the invoice

Updates their company details

Save, Print and Forward

Estimates and Invoices can be printed, downloaded as PDF’s and can be forwarded to other contacts by your clients from the options provided inside the ‘More’ drop down.

P.S: Once the estimate or invoice is forwarded to a contact by the client, that contact gets added up as a contact person for the client in your Zoho Books account.

Statements

Your clients can have a detailed statement of all the transactions taking place between them and your company and also have their statements printed and downloaded as PDF’s.

Client Details

Clients can update and edit their personal details, company details and change their password by clicking on the drop-down provided from their account info at the top-left corner.

My Account

‘My Account’ option is used for updating & editing personal details of the client.

Clients can fill in their name and contact details. They can also edit their credit card details.

My Company Details

My Company Details option is used for updating and editing company details of the client.

Clients can fill in their company’s contact information.

Change Password

Clients can change the password they use to enter the client portal by clicking on the ‘Change Password’ option.

P.S: The password changes only for the specific contact person using the client portal.